6. Normative aspects

In the field of software functional safety, as is the case for all innovative industrial activities, dedicated standards have been developed in parallel with practical development, and have evolved in a mutually influential way: feedback from the field has influenced standards, but standardization has also facilitated the transition to practice. This evolution is still ongoing, as the field is not yet technically stabilized.

• From a historical point of view, the first standards were provided by the fields in which the need for programmed system safety emerged the earliest, i.e. aeronautics, space and rail transport. The result was a series of sector-based standards, strongly dependent on the nature of the systems concerned and the safety rules already in force in these fields. All these standards have been regularly updated and are used intensively....